Joseph Henry Nettlefold

{{Short description|British businessman}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Use British English|date=April 2018}} {{more citations needed|date=November 2024}}

'''Joseph Henry Nettlefold''' (19 September 1827 – 22 November 1881) was a British [[industrialist]], the Nettlefold in [[GKN|Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds]].

He was born in London to [[John Sutton Nettlefold]] who, in 1854, dispatched him to manage the business of [[Nettlefold and Chamberlain]] in Birmingham with his brother Edward John and cousin [[Joseph Chamberlain]]. The Chamberlains left the firm in 1874 and Edward John died in 1878, leaving effective control of Birmingham manufacturing and engineering to Joseph, and his younger brother [[Frederick Nettlefold]] as chairman in London. '''Nettlefolds Ltd''' was launched as a [[limited company]] in 1880.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Edgar |title=A History of GKN |chapter=Nettlefolds Ltd. and the Screw Industry, 1880–1902 |date=1987 |pages=199–236 |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-06629-2_7 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-06629-2_7 |access-date=6 November 2024 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |isbn=978-1-349-06631-5 |language=en|chapter-url-access=subscription }}</ref> Nettlefold, by a series of astute [[mergers and acquisitions]], went on to establish a virtual [[monopoly]] in the British [[wood]]-[[screw]] market.

Nettlefold was a sober man whose principal interests were technical. He became a member of the [[Institution of Mechanical Engineers]] in 1860. Though both his parents were [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]], Nettlefold married a [[Roman Catholic]], Mary Maria Seaborne (born 1835), in 1867. None of their three daughters went on to have any connection with the family business.

Nettlefold died of [[apoplexy]], aged 54, in November 1881 at his Scottish residence, ''Allean House'', near [[Pitlochry]], [[Perthshire]]. He bequeathed several paintings by [[David Cox (artist)|David Cox]] to the [[Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery]], on condition that it open on Sundays.<ref>{{cite news |title=Donation call for lost paintings is dismissed |url=https://www.business-live.co.uk/economic-development/donation-call-lost-paintings-dismissed-3975517 |access-date=6 November 2024 |work=Business Live |date=1 October 2006 |language=en}}</ref> He left a further £1000 to the [[King's Heath and Moseley Institute]].

Sometime after Nettlefold's death, ''Nettlefold & Co.'' was acquired by [[Arthur Keen (businessman)|Arthur Keen]]'s ''Guest, Keen & Co.'' to create ''Guest, Keen and Nettlefold'' which is, {{As of|2007|lc=on}}, still trading. For many years, this company has been better known as [[GKN]].

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nettlefold, Joseph Henry}} [[Category:1827 births]] [[Category:1881 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century British engineers]] [[Category:History of Birmingham, West Midlands]] [[Category:19th-century English businesspeople]]